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City analyzing bids for work on SW 52nd Street

City of Lawton engineers are analyzing bids for the city's next major road construction project: Southwest 52nd Street.

And two of the three bids offered are within the engineering estimate.

The project, estimated at $6.5 million and authorized by the City Council earlier this year through funding in its 2012 Capital Improvements Program, will rebuild the heavily traveled west Lawton street into three lanes between West Gore Boulevard and the railroad tracks one-half mile to the south. The work is designed to improve about half of the mile-long stretch of Southwest 52nd Street, focusing on the most heavily used portion of the road.

Construction would result in a road that includes one northbound travel lane, one southbound travel lane and a center turning lane, the same design used north of West Gore Boulevard on the section of Northwest 53rd Street between West Gore Boulevard and Cache Road. In addition, in keeping with city code, the project will add a 10-foot-wide concrete bicycle/pedestrian sidewalk along the east side of the rebuilt road.

City officials have said funding is the reason they are doing only a half-mile segment of the road, rather than the entire mile. City administrators said the half-mile segment of road between the railroad tracks and West Lee Boulevard is in much better condition than the north half mile. In addition, the north half-mile includes traffic from an elementary school and a high school on the west side and an apartment complex and a housing addition on the east side.

City Engineer George Hennessee said the extensive drainage work needed for the project is what is driving its cost. Those extensive costs also are why the project is being limited to a three-lane expansion, even though the city now has enough right of way to build a five-lane road (something city administrators said may consider in the future if funding is available).